Hello and welcome to montrealgazette.com and welcome to Midday. Here’s the rundown on some of the stories we’re following for you today.

The three men currently being sought after pulling off a brazen escape from a detention centre near Quebec City were supposed to appear in court on Monday as part of a lengthy drug-trafficking trial that was in progress in the provincial capital. The three men – Denis Lefebvre, 53, Serge Pomerleau, 49, and Yves Denis, 35 – were initially charged in a court in Val-d’Or following a massive investigation dubbed Opération Écrevisse, which began in 2009 following a series of violent incidents in the Abitibi region. The main focus of the probe targeted attempts by an organized group to take control of drug-trafficking in the Abitibi region – and specifically, Val-d’Or. Dozens of arrests were made in 2010 but the trio, and another co-accused, saw their case severed from the rest and the drug-trafficking, conspiracy and weapons-related charges they faced were transferred to Quebec City after a judge granted a change-of-venue request. The lengthy jury trial began in April and all three men were supposed to be transported to the Quebec City courthouse on Monday but their escape from the Orsainville Detention Centre on Saturday, aided by the use of a helicopter that landed in the central courtyard, altered those plans.

A search is under way this morning in St-Lazare for a kangaroo. Yes, a kangaroo. The animal, 12-month old female kangaroo named Mirka, is part of Luc Lefebvre’s menagerie at the non-profit Murmurs d’animaux, a zoo-therapy facility on Ste. Angelique Rd. The animal got loose at about 6 p.m. on Sunday. “Everyone is looking for her,” he said adding that he believes Mirka may have run into a nearby wooded area. Lefevbre said the animal, which he purchased from a zoo in Ontario, got spooked by a truck and ran away. Lefevbre keeps several animals on his farm, including camels, donkeys and horses. Anyone who spots the kangaroo can contact Lefevbre at 514-817-4994. We’ll have more on this story for you later today.

The accumulated number of doctors who have gone private in Quebec — opting out of medicare and billing patients directly for medically necessary services — has increased more than five times since 2000, newly compiled government figures show. Although the “opt-outs” represent a fraction of the total number of physicians practising under medicare in Quebec, supporters of public health care say it’s worrisome trend. Ontario, by comparison, does not let its doctors opt out of medicare, while other provinces have imposed restrictions. In 2000, 51 doctors withdrew permanently from the medicare plan administered by the Régie de l’assurance-maladie du Québec. As of April 17, the latest date for which statistics are available, the cumulative total reached 278. “This is a slippery slope toward American-style health care where you have a mix of public and private health care and where the private interests focus on the profitable medical procedures,” said Michael McBane, national coordinator of the Canadian Health Coalition in Ottawa. “These private interests hive off anything they can make money on — hips, knees, cataracts, etc. — and concentrate on healthy and wealthy patients. Meanwhile, they leave the sick and complicated cases to the public. So in a sense, they’re cherry-picking (the easiest cases), and so it damages the public system.”

It was a bloody Saturday in the Montreal area, with a total of four homicides — the city’s ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th — reported in a period of less than 24 hours. “It’s unheard of,” police spokesperson Danny Richer said of the death toll. “I’ve never seen anything like this.” At this time last year, 11 homicides had been committed in Montreal.

The Pakistani Taliban on Monday threatened more attacks after claiming responsibility for a brazen five-hour assault on the country’s busiest airport in which gunmen disguised as police guards stormed the international airport in Karachi, set off explosions and killed 18 people. The claim further diminished prospects for a resumption of peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban that officials had hoped could bring an end to the group’s bloody, years-long campaign seeking to overthrow the country’s U.S.-allied government. The insurgency has shaken the stability of the nuclear-armed country, which borders Afghanistan, where international forces have been fighting the Afghan Taliban for more than a decade.

And finally, about 100 firefighters are battling a five-alarm fire at a residential building in Villeray Monday morning. Smoke billowing from the three-storey building on Christophe-Colomb, near Everett St., can be seen from miles away. The building is attached on both sides in a row of residential housing in the northern part of the city. The Montreal fire department did not have any details yet on whether anyone is trapped inside the building, or injured. Presse Canadienne news agency says that Montreal police are indicating an explosion may have occurred. we’ll have more on that story for you later today.

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